A bid to unwind planning approval for the eight-storey Ascent apartment project in Nelson Bay has been defeated, and work is now expected to start on site within weeks.
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Port Stephens Council had granted approval for the 11-13 Church Street development in April amid fears that at 32 metres it was too tall – double the agreed development ceiling reached in the 2012 Nelson Bay strategy.
Councillors John Nell, Geoff Dingle and Peter Kafer lodged a rescision motion after the April meeting with the desire to delay construction until Port Stephens Council had completed a review of the 2012 strategy that’s due in just weeks.
That motion was defeated on Tuesday night.
“We’re excited the plans finally have approval,” developer Rod Salmon said.
“We’re trying to get the display suite on site as soon as possible. We’ve already been to tender for the building work and the contract is going to be signed next week.”
Mr Salmon, a Sydney hotelier, said people could expected to see activity on site within four weeks.
“We’ve actually purchased a crane and we have to build a crane base but we can do that while we wait for the construction certificate to come through,” he said.
“There’s still a construction certificate in place from before so we’ll probably start pulling out the pylons too. I Couldn’t get an engineer to sign off on them so all that noise and vibration 10 years ago was for nothing.”
Cr Nell told the council on Tuesday night that the plans should be delayed.
“The community understands that we can’t always do what they like but we’re not even listening to them, the strategy review isn’t finished yet,” he said.
Cr Dingle added that it had taken a lot of work to get the strategy discussion going only to ignore it.
“The role of councillors is to represent the residents not developers,” he said.
“Who says this is going to be built anyway, $30 million is a lot of money and he’s probably going to have to sell 75 per cent of them off the plan to have a chance and there’s nothing to say that it’s going to be sold on with the DA in place.”
Mr Salmon said 13 apartments had already been sold off the plan worth $13 million including two penthouse suites.
“We’ve already go the funds sorted but those sales will help with stage two,” he said.
Mr Salmon referred to the “holes in the ground” next door that he’s entered into an agreement to buy but for now the focus is on Ascent.
“We’re hoping Christmas next year people will start moving in,” he said.
“It’s a 60 week construction as long as the weather remains good.”
Tomaree Ratepayers and Residents Association acting president Dick Appleby said the approval would set a precedent in years to come,
“TRRA thanks our local councillor John Nell and councillors Dingle and Kafer for supporting a sensible motion to defer a decision until a report on the recent Nelson Bay Strategy review is available mid-year,” he said.
“We are very disappointed that the other two representatives of the local community - councillors Dover and Morello, chose not to wait to hear the views of their constituents but instead voted with the ‘development at any cost’ majority for approval.”
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